Vinyl Review: "Monumenty Selhani" by Gattaca

Monumenty Selhani

One of the cool things about doing what I do is being able to hear music from all around the world that might have ordinarily escaped my notice.

Today I have the opportunity to spin the newest release from Gattaca of the Czech Republic.

Monumenty Selhani is composed and sung entirely in Czech.

This isn't my first time listening to a record in another language, but it's usually pretty cool.

We've all heard the tale that music is the universal language right?

All I know for certain is that the album is five emotionally charged and political songs.

So, what do I come away with?

Unlike Left To Starve, Rope and Guillotine's last release, this album isn't anxious and worried. It's purely angry.

And it has a total right to be.

It's a short one. It comes in around twenty minutes in length, something that's easily digestible.

The anger in this one...it's almost toxic. It's sung by a man possessed. He's been pushed to his limits and can't take it anymore.

This is invigorating.

This is where things change. Gattaca could've just released their songs and sang their words in their native tongue.

Then an American like me would only have the tunes and the melodies to hum. So, they took another step forward. In the album came a book the size of a 7" and therein are contained the lyrics, both in Czech and in English.

The first track, Pomniky Selhani (Monuments of Failure) is about the Assad regime's terrorizing its own people.

"Future folk musuems of labor camps and worthless lives" is a scathing lyric.

This is a call to action. It's no like this band is so far away as I am. In St. Louis, I'm half a world away from the Middle East, ISIS, and Assad.

The American perspective is always one of distance.

It continues with Rozdel A Panuj (Divide and Conquer).

"Floods are coming, just believe, that's enough, Drowned in their own anxiety."

This song is about Right Wing Nationalist, and terrorist Jaromir Balda. The anger and fear is palpable.

When I read the lyrics and the contextual annotations below the songs, the record becomes greater and greater.

Well, it wouldn't be fair to deprive you of all of it.

If you're looking for political, crust punk with an edge...here you are.

Read the lyrics.

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